The present invention relates to computer apparatus, and particularly to cooling components of computers in order to improve efficiency and speed.
Computers fulfill a variety of tasks in the modern world. Desktop PCs are used for recreation at home and are essential to most offices, and laptop or notebook computers provide the additional benefit of portability. Individually-designed computers control industrial processes, while networked server farms are efficiently controlled to allow maximum processing power to applications processing large amounts of information.
All electronic components produce heat, and in general the faster they process information, the more heat they produce. Thus computer speed and efficiency are limited by how much heat can be removed from components. A typical PC has a fan and heatsink on the CPU to keep it cool. A case fan blows air through the case and a fan in the power supply keeps the power supply from overheating. A computer with such a system can be kept at a temperature a little above room temperature.
Water-cooled systems are used in laptop and notebook computers, in which the problem of heat is exacerbated by the components' close proximity to one another. In such a system water is piped over the components, cooled in a radiator and returned. Again, this system keeps the computer at around room temperature.
Using a coolant with a lower freezing point than water in such a system could lower the temperature dramatically. However, cooling components below room temperature would cause moisture in the air to condense onto them, causing damage.